Green poop in Newborn

“Green poop in Newborn”!!! I hear you shriek as you go running from the room – wondering if you’ve given birth to a little Green Alien!!!
It is no wonder some new Dads freak-out at the sight of those early dirty diapers – and are never seen or heard from again!!!
If your newborn baby has green poop don't worry – it is perfectly normal.

Here's why:

    * When your baby is still in the womb, their intestines are filled with a substance called "meconium" which is thick, sticky and dark green. If your baby gets into trouble while still in the womb, this forces them to have a bowel action, and the meconium goes into the water (amniotic fluid) that surrounds your baby. Under normal circumstances, the baby does not expel the meconium until after birth. Hence your baby's first poop or poops are very dark green - almost black in color.   Even if your newborn baby is breastfed green poop is totally normal in the first few days.
    * Transitional stools (poops) – this is the poop as it changes from the meconium, to the poop from the milk feed which can be greeny/yellow loose curdy looking – this is perfectly normal and is what you can expect from a breast-feeding baby.
    * Some formula fed babies will have green poop, because of the iron content in the formula – these poops look more like a normal “formed stool” though.

However

    * Some runny green loose poops can indicate diarrhea which is dangerous for any baby – check with your Health Care Professional as to which poop your infant has.

(If you visit our New Parents Videos area ( button on the left hand side of the home page), you can get a preview the dvd "Newborn Parenting for a New World:  A Practical guide for Mom and Dad" -- it demonstrates how to change a diaper - and shows what you can expect a newborn's poop to look like - the infant in the video clip of diaper changing is 3 weeks old, and is breast-fed - the clip shows one of the typical "breast-feeding poops")

So yes, your baby's green poop is all part and parcel of dealing with a newborn baby - Welcome to Parenthood!!